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Politicians using rugby league as a pawn

Roar Guru
23rd October, 2009
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Roar Guru
23rd October, 2009
15

Originally I was dubious as to whether or not our former Prime Minister would want to chair the independent commission of the NRL. Whilst he is a sports fan, it seemed to me like a no-win outcome for a former Prime Minister.

If it went well, Searle would get the credit. If it went badly, then Howard would get the blame.

But never did I think that the NRL clubs would openly campaign to reject having the former Prime Minister chair such a committee at the behest of a Labor minister.

By way of background, I am one of the few who actually has little problem with New Limited being involved in the game. I think we casually discard the fact that they have invested a substantial amount of money into the game and continue to support clubs with marginal commercial prospects.

Despite my lack of objections, the independent commission still made sense from a conflict of interest point of view. One of the biggest things with conflict of interest is making sure other stakeholders see that you take it seriously.

Now, given that a large part of what this commission will achieve is the perception of fairness, does it not serve us well to have as visible chairman as possible?

It beggars belief that clubs would openly campaign against a former leader of the country as the chair person simply because of his political alignment.

This move can only be one of two things: an admission that our game is in such dire straits that a man who has run a country will not have the necessary experience to chair a committee to guide the code through its current vein of strife, or a neon sign that the game is held hostage to the political alignment of clubs and that the next election is seen as more important than the future of the game.

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Sadly, I fear it is the latter rather than the former.

I say this as a person who is definitely not a fan of John Howard’s time as Prime Minister but understands that the commission needs a high profile chairman and, given Jennifer Hawkins is busy hawking Myer shares, who else available has a higher profile than the former Prime Minister?

What makes this more outrageous is that we are willing to still consider him for a seat on the committee. This means that the clubs recognise he has the ability to contribute but are unwilling to provide what they see as free kick to the liberal party.

Shouldn’t the game be more important?

Sport is supposed to be an escape from the every day struggle of life’s myriad of trials: the mortgage, the political alignment, the weekday grind are supposed to be forgotten as the whistle blows and the boot meets the ball for kick off.

If we, as fans, allow this to happen, we are not just condoning but outright endorsing the use of our game as a political pawn. And if we do that, then we may as well blow full time on the concept of sport.

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